Maxwell Grant - The Shadow - 254 by Maxwel l Grant

Author:Maxwel,l Grant
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf

CHAPTER IX. A SNEAK RAID

A SHORT time after the departure of Margo Lane and Lamont Cranston, they returned to the dignified front of Richardson Jordan's mansion. This time, they arrived on foot.

They attracted scant attention from the few passers-by on the sidewalk. The brief case that Cranston carried seemed a shade too large and a bit heavy to contain business papers. But that was a minor detail, one not easily noticed by people swiftly passing the house, intent on their own affairs.

The shades on the mansion's ground floor were all drawn. The Shadow was not worried about the possibility of watchful eyes behind those shades. Margo had not actually done anything to make the sly henchmen of Jordan look for a quick return visit.

All Margo had done was to behave suspiciously.

Besides, neither Snyder nor the sullen Rodney had discovered that the lock of the front door had been tampered with.

The door opened noiselessly at Cranston's touch. He and Margo stepped into the shadowy foyer.

The house was dim and silent. A quick preliminary survey informed The Shadow that Rodney was busy at the rear, in the servant's pantry. Snyder had gone upstairs a short while earlier. He was undoubtedly still there.

But not in Jordan's private study. Cranston had not failed to use his eyes on that earlier visit. He had noticed that open door of another room down the second-floor corridor from Jordan's study.

This other room was smaller. It contained a desk, a typewriter, and all the other equipment that marked it as a room where a secretary might work. The Shadow assumed correctly that this small chamber was probably Snyder's.

In the dimness of the downstairs hall, Margo waited while Lamont Cranston faded briefly from sight. He was not absent for long. When he reappeared, the nattily dressed figure of the wealthy clubman had vanished. In its place was a more ominous personage.

The black cloak of The Shadow seemed to melt invisibly against the background of dark and formal draperies. Blazing eyes were screened by the tilted brim of a black slouch hat. Black gloves covered the hands of the supreme foe of crime.

The Shadow was now ready for more surprises against the clever Mr. Snyder!

He led the way up the soft covering that masked the sound of footfalls on the staircase. He carried the empty brief case in his gloved hands. Margo glided silently behind him.

At the top, The Shadow halted. Invisible except from below the stairs, he peered along the dim corridor of the second floor. His gaze penetrated past the partly opened door of Snyder's room.

He could hear the busy click of a typewriter. Part of a desk was visible. The sight of polished shoes and the lower half of two gray trouser legs showed that the man who was busy at the typing machine was Snyder himself.

The Shadow's gloved hands made a quick gesture. Obeying his silent order, Margo crept quickly past the exposed bit of corridor. She disappeared into the private study of Richardson Jordan.

The moment Margo was safely inside, The Shadow was on the move, too.

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